PCH Roadtrip – Santa Cruz – San Francisco

Day Four

Carol Blog today.  First one ever.

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean in Santa Cruz. Robert popped out for a morning coffee and we sat on the terrace having our Solvang pastries for breakfast with a beautiful, fresh view.

After breakfast we set out on the road heading for San Francisco.  Not too far into the journey we saw a local park with a covered bridge. Felton Covered Bridge.  A long time dream of mine was to see and photograph an old covered bridge. A few photos later, we are back on the road.

The next part of the journey was simply amazing. Coming off the coastal route today we headed through the redwood forests, stopping at Henry Cowell State Park. Parked the car for an hour and took a hiking trail down to the water…these trees are some size.

Not as big, we hear, as other redwood forests further north but still very impressive and bigger than we’ve seen before in height.

After our morning hike we headed back on the road to our next stop enroute – San Jose. We stopped here so that we could visit the Winchester Mansion. After watching the movie recently, I was expecting it to be spooky and was apprehensive about going on the tour.  However, when we arrived we paid our $40 for the tour as I was pleasantly surprised.  It was such a fun, quirky, beautiful house. Full of amazing craftsmanship and lots of innovative designs for the time. Mrs Winchester deserves quite a lot of credit for this.  Definitely glad we took the tour.

 

Feeling a bit hungry after the tour we stopped off at a local Burrito deli for a spot of lunch.

Excitedly, late afternoon we arrived in the ‘City by the bay’, passing over the Golden Gate Bridge. A first for the me and it didn’t disappoint. Amazing piece of engineering.

We were staying in Tiburon so headed there to check into our hotel before exploring the big city. Tiburon has a ferry service commuting to San Fran…this seamed a more relaxing option rather than driving into the city and trying to find a parking space.

It was a pleasant 5 minute walk from our hotel, the Lodge at Tiburon, to the ferry port. What a lovely 35 minute sail, passing the Golden Gate Bridge , the Bay Bridge and Alcatraz Island. Saved us a Bay Boat Tour.

Once in the city, we wanted to tick off the cable car experience. We were only spending a few hours in the city so we were happy with jumping on the cable car down to Fishermans Wharf for some dinner. The Trolley Car driver was sorry there were no seats for us and we had to hang off the edge. Little did he know this was my dream way of travelling on the tram!

A little bit chilly at this time of day, we were happy to try some clam chowder to heat us up and some Calamari.  Washed down with a local beer.  Tummies full and happy with our San Francisco whistle stop tour we headed back to our hotel. Missing the last ferry we got an Uber for only $5 extra. Arriving back at the hotel for 9pm we decided a night cap was needed at the hotel bar, before turning in. An early start tomorrow for the journey home…☹

Mini Scottish road trip Part 2 – Taychreggan Hotel

We arrived at the hotel late afternoon for just an overnight break.  The drive from the main road was interesting including some fool in a Suzuki SUV thing getting annoyed despite the fact he passed his passing place before us.  The benefit of an open top car is when I tell him exactly what I think of him…he can hear me!  He looked like one of those folks who was permanently angry so I was quite pleased I might have set him further off.

However…the pleasant views and beautifully tranquil setting soon set me back on the straight and narrow (btw…I wasn’t the driver ;-)).  The place is in the middle of nowhere and right on the edge of Loch Awe which is a quiet loch and not even close to being as developed as some of the Loch’s further south.

We checked in and got a pleasant surprise when they upgraded us to the nicest room in the hotel!  I had paid US rates because I booked through my US account so I was already paying less than the quoted (which was nice) but to be upgraded to a four poster bed with the best views across the Loch in the hotel was really quite pleasant.  Molton Brown (which is apparently a good thing) toiletries in the room impressed Carol as did the enormous bath.

We opted at check in for the set dinner (they don’t have an evening ala carte menu) which turned out to be quite pricey per head (50GBP) but it was 5 courses plus canapes.  We don’t get away too often so we splurged for the meal.

After check in and getting organized we headed out for a walk about the grounds.  The place is beautifully place on the side of the Loch and had great views right up the Loch and across the Glen.  They have a number of small private spaces to sit and take in the scenery and they have obviously thought this thorough as each space is away from the other so people can have their own space even when the place is busy.  The same goes for the inside.

They do not have a huge number of rooms but they do have plenty of sitting areas to while away the hours quietly and undisturbed.

After a walk around we headed and got ready for dinner.

Dinner is an experience (the price tag reflects that ;-)) and you start with drinks and canapes in the bar.  We chose some wine and it got all set up at our table.  The waiting staff then walk you through individually to your table which is a nice touch.  

The five courses sounds a lot but actually each course is smallish in size so that you are still appreciative of the food by the end.  The beautiful setting was excellent, the fabulous room good too but the food was the highlight.  Incredibly tasty and full of flavour even in the small bites!

After dinner the staff walked us through to the sitting room with night caps and we sat there chatting for a while then retired to the Snooker room where they have a 12 foot table and played a game.  We are both rank rotten at the game so one game took best part of an hour (I blame the lack of chalk… ;-)).

Breakfast in the morning was decent and we checked out relaxed and ready for a day exploring the motherland.  The place was lovely and a lot of small items like a complimentary Carafe of Sherry in your room, spare wellingtons for walking around in, umbrellas, the red telephone box outside, the sitting rooms, the seats outside and other items made for a pretty excellent stay overall.

The single track road down.

Beautiful view from the dinner table

View from our room

The road down

Random Peacock

big snooker table

Panorama from the dock

Red telephone box

Spare wellies to borrow!

Mini Scottish Road Trip Part 1 – Travel to Taychreggan

Back in Scotland and decided to get away for a night just the two of us.  Booked a trip on Expedia for the Taychreggan Hotel in Argyll.  It’s roughly 2.5 hours drive from Cumbernauld and we set off around 1pm to head up there.

It’s a beautiful drive and the scenery in Scotland is just so breathtaking.  You never forget how beautiful it is but sometimes you forget the awesomeness of the spectacle when you drive round a bend and witness a view so fantastic that it takes your breath away for a second.  I can never recommend enough a drive through the highlands for a couple of days.

We headed up past Stirling and the dominant view around that area is the castle which sits on the hill and no matter which direction you come from you can’t miss this fabulous place.  We then headed along the A82 through Doune, Callandar and past the Safari park from the other week.  After about 1.5 hrs of driving we were passing the Falls of Dochart and decided to stop in for some food at a place we were at a few years ago the Falls of Dochart Inn.  the Inn is right beside the beautiful falls and is a friendly and decent priced place which we knew was worth a wee couple of miles out of our way to stop off at.

For lunch I had the Venison burger which was great if a little messy and Carol had the fish and chips.  The Inn itself is right next to the falls in Killin.  It’s a beautiful old building which has an open fire and even has a resident waxwork figure of a woman sitting by the fire.  Capturing the feel of the highland croft.  Two meals and two soft drinks were under 30GBP which is excellent for the quality of the food.

After lunch we walked along the Falls which is a lovely place to visit (we visited Killin a few years ago and hired a canoe and it was excellent).  The town was having a scarecrow festival so there was a slightly bizarre and slightly sinister wedding group as we drove in which was a little confusing.

After lunch we headed up the road to the Hotel.  It was up past the Green Welly in Tyndrum and just before Taynuilt there was a turn to a single track road.  The road was 7 miles long of single track road before we got to the hotel.  Worth the drive though.  Beautiful setting.

The single track road down.